Author of "Tasty: The Art and Science of What We Eat," on the science of taste, culinary history, and the future of food. My work has appeared in Smithsonian magazine, Wired, The Washington Post, Mother Jones, the Guardian and the Huffington Post. In a previous life I was a reporter for The Times-Picayune of New Orleans, where I contributed to several Pulitzer Prize-winning efforts. I am the co-author of "Path of Destruction: The Devastation of New Orleans and the Coming Age of Superstorms."

Romney's Rising Oceans Joke

Just a quick note on one part of Mitt Romney’s big speech. He didn’t simply dismiss global warming, or reject policies intended to address or mitigate against sea level rise, which is closely tied to global warming. Politicians do those things all the time. It’s ill-informed and irresponsible. But Romney took this a step further: he used the very idea of controlling sea level rise as a mere rhetorical device, a laugh line to mock Barack Obama‘s grandiosity. And he milked it for a few long seconds as the crowd at the Republican National Convention laughed.

“President Obama promised to slow the rise of the oceans and to heal the planet. My promise is to help you and your family.”

I don’t buy that this is solely about Obama’s alleged hubris. It’s a twofer: of course the crowd was laughing at the hubris angle; while I don’t have a poll to prove it, it’s safe to say most RNC attendees are not too keen on the current consensus on climate science either. So: double rimshot. But this remark is, needless to say, unhelpful. Sea level rise is a genuine problem. The oceans are actually rising as the planet warms up, in part because the volume of water is expanding due to the extra heat, and in part due to the ongoing melting of polar ice. Evidence suggests that for most of the past 3,000 years, sea levels were stable, but that they began rising in the 1950s. Since then, they crept up at an annual rate of 1.7 millimeters per year. Lately, though, sea level rise has apparently been accelerating: This 2010 paper published by Science magazine (paywalled), notes that over the past 20 years, global sea level has risen an average of 3.3 millimeters a year.

This is becoming a severe social and political problem because so many people around the world, and millions of them in the United States (including Romney’s Boston headquarters) are located along coastlines. Approximately 10% of the world’s population lives at elevations of 10 meters or less above sea level, the Science paper notes, and many of these places suffer from subsidence, erosion, and other problems that hasten their exposure and possible demise.

The biggest risk here is from storms, which can suddenly pump up sea levels by many meters, with little warning. People like living near coastlines, and, in the U.S. and other parts of the developed world, coastal development has surged in recent years. But most assumptions for development and flood protection assume a certain stability that no longer exists. Denying this (as some state and local governments are doing) is crazy: sooner or later, the people living in these places, and the businesses they built there, will pay the price.

So Romney’s notion that helping families and protecting communities against sea level rise are somehow diametrically opposed is silly. He knows better.

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Rocky – You are a perfect example of the deep flaws in our educational system. You have been pumped full of slogans that you expel from time to time to give youself a thrill, wholly without regard for what your words, or those of others, actually mean. A federal union of otherwise independent states could be formed to advance a variety of political viewpoints. The adoption of our Constitution in preference to the Articles of Confederation was not any form of endorsement of either collectivism or central planning.

In the future, please stick to masturbation. You will be much less dangerous to yourself and others.

I can’t believe the comments here which are so focused on the “content” of Romney’s statement and are totally missing the “process” of what he was saying. It had everything to do with rejecting Obama’s socialist, collectivist, big government, world rule philosophy and refocusing to what America was founded on: fostering American exceptionalism through the individual and the family. It is time for you “academics” to get off you liberal high horse pedestal that ONLY you know what is right. It is so denigrating!

This alleged joke is more than snarky or silly. It displays the grotesque and appalling idiocy of many in the right wing. I do not know the exact context of Obama’s original comment, but there is no way that the president would value the suffering of the planet over human suffering. The difference between him and this horrible and pathetic candidate is that the president kknows we can heal and protect our environment while at the same time healing the economy and the social problems that we face. The denial of the scientific facts of climate change is just plain ignorant and stupid. This disrespect of our president during an election is unacceptable. The president should have but could not take the high road because the Republicians will buy their way into office this time and if they still have the majority will totally ruin the country and potentially cause major civil unrest

Romney smacking his lips making President Obama a joke line with his rising water and healing the planet comment. His joke line seems to appeal to Romney Southern strategy crowd. His crowd often is the same people that pull the dead from the flood waters that destroyed the surrounding homes. Along with the farmers that look at their dying crops because of the heat and lack of water. Years ago in Calif. Gov. Pat Brown put a Bond on the ballot to built an aqueduct system. It was successful. Yes, Gov. Pat Brown was laughed at – then. It’s terrible that the two political parties can’t manage to create jobs that will also “save the planet” because the planet is both parties home.